Yale or Stanford Early Action

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am a senior at a school in Michigan with a major decision coming up...do I apply early action (restrictive) to Stanford or Yale? I love both schools but I am leaning slightly towards Yale because it is closer to my family. However, my decision can still be changed.</p>

<p>My stats are:
-3.95 GPA at a very well regarded private school (1 B+ in honors freshman english)
-18 honors, AP, or IB courses
-34 ACT, 2210 SAT
-800 on chem and math II SAT-2
-Student Council
-President of Investment Club
-Captain of Varsity Tennis Team
-One more SAT-2 coming up in December </p>

<p>Do I have a better chance of being admitted to Yale or Stanford? </p>

<p>In addition to these schools I will apply RD to Harvard, UPenn-Wharton, Univ. of Mich, and Georgetown. If I was to get in to all of these schools (a huge if...) which school should I choose?</p>

2

<p>all of your stats are great… but the truth with harvard, yale, stanford, princeton is that perfect stats and typical extra currics do NOTHING… stanford is incredibly difficult to get into from the east coast, so your best bet is yale, but even though you have great stats you might be better off spending your early decision/ early action on a lower more realistic ivy.</p>

3

<p>I would Early Action to Yale, but that’s probably just because that’s what I myself am actually doing.</p>

4

<p>You should apply to both. Although you lack something spectacular these schools are looking for. What have you got to lose? You should apply and see. Good luck.</p>

5

<p>well, both yale and stanford are restricted EA, so the OP can’t apply to both.</p>

<p>I think Stanford puts a bit more emphasis on leadership and ECs than Yale, so if you feel like you’re stronger in those areas (especially considering the 2210 SAT, which is only about average for those schools) you might want to consider Stanford… then again, your choice :slight_smile: Have you thought about looking up stats for either one of those colleges? They’re incredibly different (weather, campus, student population, etc etc) and you might find one appeals to you more than the other.</p>

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<p>Where do you kids come up with this stuff?</p>

<p>If you’re going to say they have lower SAT scores, there’s one word for that: athletes.</p>

<p>To the OP: They will be equally tough. Given your scores and average ECs they will be very, very tough.</p>

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<p>You have little shot at either.</p>

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<p>I have looked up stats and visited both schools but I am still torn. I do not plan on sending my SAT score though (unless I have to like at Yale). What else can I do at this point to increase my chances?</p>

9

<p>Increase your scores dramatically. Your ECs are really holding you back, as they are quite average and don’t differentiate you from other applicants applying with similar stats – many with higher.</p>

10

<p>When you look at a schools stats, you need to back out the 40 plus percent of the class that is hooked to see what you need as an unhooked candidate. That 40% can have lower scores. The unhooked will generally be above the 75th percentile.</p>

11

<p>I would think that Yale would like leadership ECs more.
Not alot of award ECs…just make sure you apply at some safe schools.</p>

<p>You have a chance at Stanford or Yale. It depends on what major you wish to have to decide which school is better for you.</p>

<p>What do you want to major in?</p>

12

<p>I don’t think you’ll get admitted to either. I would aim for an Ivy like Dartmouth, Brown, or Columbia.</p>

13

<p>@hmom: I’m not 100% sure this is true, hence the “I think” part. I’m sure that if people want expert opinions, they would go to their college counselors, not high schoolers on CC… but a very good friend of mine was accepted to Stanford EA and has “contacts”, I guess, in the school. and he told me that if I wanted a good shot at stanford, I should emphasize leadership and involvement in ECs. which seems pretty logical, don’t you think?</p>

<p>definitely at either school, your ECs are good but relatively average.</p>

14

<p>I thought columbia and Yales acceptance rates only differed by less than 1 percent…</p>

<p>I’m undecided on my major as of now but I’m very interested in medicine and business (or Econ).</p>

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<p>Great source. You should take what admissions officers say with a grain of salt. What the person who told your friend that probably meant was that they don’t want nerds who spend all day studying. They want extreme academic excellence and outstanding ECs.</p>

<p>You need great ECs and leadership for both. One does not “emphasize” it more than the other.</p>

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<p>Take a look at each school’s common data set – Yale’s stats are much higher.</p>

16

<p>fair enough. you might be right; but since Yale has a reputation of being more of an esoteric school than Stanford, it made sense to me that Yale’s focus might be geared a little bit more towards test scores/GPA, while Stanford leaned towards ECs/leadership.</p>

<p>moot point. we both agree that outstanding ECs are required to get into both.</p>

17

<p>Yes I agree, but I think Stanford’s reputation that it is somehow less academically oriented than HYPM is not deserved. It’s a larger school, and the importance of athletics there sometimes clouds people’s view of it.</p>

18

<p>Had a kid last year at my school with a 3.6 GPA, track team and a 2000 (around that range) SAT score get into Stanford.</p>

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<p>Huh@@??!!?? These myths just keep getting sillier.</p>

<p>Stanford’s overall stats look lower because they are not bound by the ivy agreement to only bend so much for athletes. They have serious athletic programs and seriously bend for many athletes. For an unhooked candidate, the schools are equally hard to get into and they look for the same things.</p>

<p>Further, neither of these schools admit by major. What your major will be is totally irrelevant.</p>